by Aleron Kong
When they were done, even the uninjured were covered in blood from helping their fallen comrades. Richter cast Far Light multiple times, and several aeromancers cast Gentle Rain. Everyone tried to wash the blood off as best they could.
CHAPTER 22 – Day 141 – Kuborn 31, 15,386 EBG
The good news was that they lost no one else due to injury. Richter and the other biomages were able to stabilize or heal most wounds, and Hisako performed miracles when needed. Sprites that Richter had thought were already dead were soon back on their feet. After about thirty minutes, he had done what he could and went to find the Hearth Mother. She had gone behind a dense thicket, and the worst of the wounded had been brought to her. Dozens of sprites surrounded it. To his great surprise, when he walked closer, one of the sprites held a hand out, “I must ask you to come no closer, Lord Richter.”
“What are you doing?” he asked in extreme confusion. The sprites had never refused him anything before, least of all the right to walk in his own forest. Before he could protest, however, Hisako’s weary voice came from the thicket.
“Let the lord pass.”
The sprite whose hand had been on his chest nodded and stepped to the side. Still confused and now somewhat irritated, Richter walked by. Ten exhausted sprites walked past him in the other direction. A quick use of Analyze showed that almost all of their mana had been depleted. Ten more entered with the chaos seed and, without being asked, formed two lines of five. Each held hands, and the leader of each group laid a hand upon one of Hisako’s shoulders.
The Hearth Mother looked at Richter and said, “Know the truth, my ally.” Then she began to chant. The body of a dead sprite was laid before her. His chest had been ripped open by a koolari’s claws, and the sprite’s eyes stared sightlessly off into the ether. Richter didn’t know what she was doing, but he understood that he was being allowed to see something secret. The chaos seed kept his peace.
Her casting went on for a full minute, then another. Richter’s amazement at her abilities grew. Even a ten-second casting pushed his own control to the limit. The Hearth Mother showed no signs of stopping. The golden luminescence on her hands grew brighter and brighter. After another thirty seconds, the arcane words rose in volume, and Yoshi took a small glowing root from a pouch. He placed the herb upon the dead sprite’s forehead. Hisako finished her spell and clapped her hands together. A ripple of barely tangible force emanated from her hands, and the golden light shot towards the root.
What happened next changed Richter’s view of The Land forever. The dead sprite breathed! Color made its way back into his ashen cheeks, and the rent in his chest closed. He sat up quickly, hacking and coughing. To Richter’s disgust, a thick black substance flew onto the sprite’s chin. The resurrected fighter quickly reached up and began to pull. The dark goo was slowly drawn from his mouth. It fought his efforts, like a parasite that did not want to leave its host.
Richter moved forward to help, but Yoshi stopped him, “No. He must do this himself. The final choice, of life or death, is his alone.”
The sprite continued hacking and coughing. His fair face turned red from lack of air, and more than a dozen sprites watched their fellow struggle to survive. With a last forceful exhale, the sprite forced the last of the black substance from his lungs. Richter’s Herb Lore skill triggered.
You have found:
Rejected Death Shroud
Durability: 2/27
Herb Class: Rare.
Quality: Poor
Weight: 0.2 kg
Traits: This shroud has come back across the veil with one who has been resurrected. It is pure Death. It can be used as part of a summoning ritual for such creatures or to make a nearly incurable poison. If left unattended, it will search for another victim to ride back through the veil, causing the death of the one it finds.
“Is it an herb or is it alive?” Richter asked in confusion. The thing was moving like an amoeba.
“Neither,” Yoshi spat. With a look of controlled hate, the adept speared the thing with the edge of his sword. The amorphous blob was already trying to move away. A high-pitched keening, almost beyond Richter’s hearing range, rang out once Yoshi impaled it. The adept threw it into a small fire the sprites had built. The shroud’s scream faded as it burned away to nothing.
The ten sprites that had been giving their mana to Hisako slumped, exhausted. The Hearth Mother herself had sat down on a nearby boulder. Richter watched the sprite that had been brought back from the dead in amazement. His fellows clapped him on the back, and he gave them a shaky grin. It was clear that the resurrected sprite was weak as a kitten, but he still found the strength to kneel before the Hearth Mother. Words in sprite-speak fell from his lips, “Kona korit’onai to shī wa arata no saichi yaku ro ni sha.”
The sprite words always sounded Asian to Richter’s ears. Back on Earth he had only spoken English and some Spanish, but in The Land, his Gift of Tongues ability easily translated the revived man’s sentiment, ‘This unworthy soul thanks the Mother for his life, and promises it to you anew.”
The man kissed the hem of Hisako’s robe, and she fondly placed her hand on his head. Then he rose and walked away. Other sprite magi cast spells of healing and restoration upon him, and soon he was back to fighting shape. The sprite took his breastplate off, and the sound of hammering filled the glade as he tried to close the rent in his armor.
While this was happening, thoughts continued to spin around Richter’s mind. His emotions swirled, and he slowly shook his head as he dealt with the onslaught. Above all else, however, one word continued to rise to the surface. Petal.
Richter looked at the Hearth Mother. She looked calmly and tiredly back at him, knowing what he was about to say. Emotions played across the chaos seed’s face until he could take it no longer and he cried out, “Why?”
Into that single word was all of his sadness and loss. It also held recrimination towards the Hearth Mother for not saving his people, for not saving her! If she could bring back the dead, then why hadn’t she? Why had she let Petal die? Why had she let them all die? Why had she been amazed at his CPR? His medical skills were nothing compared to this magic! Was she so cruel to mock him while his people lay dead, all to protect this secret? WHY? He was wailing in his own head as Hisako looked back at him in sympathy.
When she spoke, there was no defense in her voice. There was only sympathy, “I know well what is in your heart, my friend. What you feel now is why this is a secret that must be kept. If it was widely known that death did not need to be final, then wars would be fought. Men and women would murder thousands if it meant giving themselves even one more day. What you have just seen is the height of Life magic, and it is not without cost. The root that Yoshi placed on my warrior’s head is rare. It is a special herb that comes from the Hearth Tree itself, and it grows slowly. Only such a pure expression of Life magic can bring the dead back. When your village was attacked, I did not have the necessary spell ingredients to resurrect either your people or mine.”
Richter blinked, a tear escaping from one eye. Emotions he had thought gone had simply been repressed. The chaos seed well remembered holding a grieving mother as she mourned the loss of her child. He nodded for Hisako to continue.
“You cannot stop death, Lord Richter. No being can halt it completely. How would you choose, Lord Richter? If there were only five of the necessary ingredients in your whole village, would you use one to bring a hunter back to life, knowing that it meant you might not be able to revive one of your warriors on the morrow? Could you let your people know that the power of life and death was in your hands, knowing that you must deny the request of a grieving mother to bring a child back one day in the future?” Richter’s heart clenched. It was as if she was looking inside of his soul. She softly added a warning, “I have seen settlements ripped asunder for less.”
The chaos seed wanted to deny her words, but he knew that she spoke the truth. Richter hung his head. Despite the fact that he was proving her ver
y point, he fell to both knees, “Will you save my men, Hearth Mother?” He thought he had hardened his heart against the deaths of his people and the losses he had suffered, but in this one moment, he understood that he had simply been ignoring the pain in hopes that it would fade and disappear.
“I will try,” she agreed wearily, “if you will lend me your magic. And your strength. You must choose, however. This far from the Hearth Tree, I will not be able to bring back anyone that has been dead for more than an hour. I will have the time to save two more of your people, possibly three, but not all six that have fallen. Choose.”
Richter’s heart nearly broke as he looked at the bodies of his six men. Six brave souls that had made the final sacrifice for him. He would reward half by deeming them “less.” He looked at Hisako, anguish clear on his face. She merely looked back, her face now steel, “Such is the weight of leadership. Time grows short, Lord Richter. Choose.”
Hating her, and himself, and the world for putting him in such a position, he pointed at his aeromancer, “Him first.”
More sprites filed in to replace those whose mana pools had been depleted. This time, Richter took his place at the head of one of the lines and placed a hand on Hisako’s shoulder. A prompt filled his vision again.
Hisako, the Hearth Mother, would like to access your mana core. Do you wish to allow this? Yes or No? Alert! Doing this can allow the other party to cause you great and irreparable harm!
He disregarded the warning and chose ‘Yes.’ Gold light once again surrounded her hands, and her chanting filled the air. There was an almost physical sensation of pulling as she drew on his mana. Richter was tempted to resist at first, but by giving into it, though, the “wrongness” of it faded away. It was replaced with the feeling of being part of something greater than himself. A few minutes later, his Air mage sat up and began coughing. The drama of the death shroud played itself out again. It took the caster longer to expel the shroud and when he finally did, it was larger and more mobile than the first. Yoshi quickly placed it in the fire.
His caster looked at Richter, “My lord? My lord, what happened? What was that thing inside of me?” Alarm began to cross the man’s features. His words were questioning as he tried to remember, “I was fighting. I was fighting, and then…”
The chaos seed interrupted his guard’s confused musings. He had already decided what to tell the man, “You were knocked unconscious during the battle. The undead spit something on you that crawled in your mouth. Luckily, Lady Hisako was able to force it out of you. The sprites will take you to our biomancers.” The man opened his mouth to speak again, but Richter firmly said, “On your way, soldier.”
The caster walked away, still confused and looking doubtful, but did as he was bid. Once he left the thicket, Yoshi threw back the cloaks that were hiding the other bodies. It was a sensible precaution the adept had taken without being asked. Richter didn’t hesitate. He just pointed to the next guard that he wanted resurrected. The man wasn’t the strongest or the highest level of the dead guards, but he had a family and children. A small part of Richter’s innocence died, but he didn’t shy from his duty. Richter drank a mana potion and placed his hand on Hisako’s shoulder again. “If you are ready, Hearth Mother, let us begin.”
CHAPTER 23 – Day 141 – Kuborn 31, 15,386 EBG
Hisako had been right. They were able to save three of his men in total. The last one resurrected almost died again. The death shroud was firmly entrenched in her body. There was blood on it when it had finally been pulled from the guard’s throat. The creature had held on so tightly that it ripped tissue from the inside of the woman’s body. Even after the shroud was burning in the fire, the guard continued to hack up gouts of blood. It was only through the intervention of sprite healers that the bleeding was stopped. Richter knew without being told that they could not save the rest.
Hisako lay exhausted. She still found the strength to give Richter a warning. While the power of resurrection could be wonderful, it also opened a doorway to great evil. The shroud had to be destroyed. If it was allowed to live, it could grow into a being of horrible, destructive power. She also warned him against attempting a resurrection if the body had been dead for more than an hour. The shroud grew stronger the longer the body had been dead. Even if the resurrection failed, the shroud could still be unleashed upon The Land.
Richter agreed, and Yoshi handed over a small pouch of five of the glowing roots. The Hearth Mother assured him that Sumiko could cast the spell. Hisako gave him a final warning to keep the roots secret. She also reiterated that he was being given such a gift only because of their strong relationship and alliance. The chaos seed nodded and opened the bag.
You have found:
Rebirth Root of the Hearth Tree
Durability: 4/4
Herb Class: Rare.
Quality: Living
Weight: 0.2 kg
Traits: This root has been gathered from deep beneath the Hearth Tree of the Wood Sprites. It has concentrated the Life energy of the Place of Power and the many residents who live above it. You feel that it could be used to greatly augment the summoning of Life creatures. If placed in contact with Death creatures, it could also destroy it or at least greatly limit its powers. Adding this root to any Health potion would improve both its strength and level by 3 ranks.
“I don’t see the capability of the root to resurrect,” Richter said.
Hisako smiled and gave a tired laugh, “That is because you are only an apprentice in Herb Lore. There is still much you have to learn, young lord.”
Richter nodded. This was actually a good thing. It meant he could try to grow it in the village garden, without any of his villagers learning of its properties. He didn’t realize it, but that was the moment that he fully committed to deceiving his own people. It was done with the best of intentions, but it was done.
Hisako needed another thirty minutes to recover. While she did, they finally spoke about his use of CPR to revive a dwarf after the bugbear attack. He explained what he had done, stopping several times to answer her questions. She then quizzed him even more, taxing his unused medical knowledge. She just nodded in response to many of the things he told her, as if he was confirming things she already suspected about the workings of the body. When he began speaking of DNA and other macromolecules, however, her eyes grew wide. The questions came faster, and she started to smile as if long-questioned mysteries questions were finally being answered.
When she was recovered, they made their way out of the thicket. The troops looked grateful for the rest after the attack. One unhappy task remained before they moved out again. “What do we do with the dead?” he asked. “We are too far from my Place of Power for me to summon mist workers. We can’t send them back, and we can’t take them with us into battle.”
“I will show you,” Hisako said. Her tone was gentle, but pragmatic. “First, strip the bodies of anything useful.”
Soon all arms, armor, and items were taken from the dead. Potions and water were distributed among the other soldiers. Richter had looked around at first, concerned that his men and women might think him heartless, but no one batted an eye. The realities of battle and sudden death were instilled in the people of The Land. Arms and armor, especially those that were enchanted, were simply too valuable to waste. When the bodies were laid bare, she extended both hands and started casting. The mystical syllables were familiar to Richter. She was ensuring that the dead would not one day rise again.
With that done, she began a different casting. The words did not have the rich tones of Life magic but instead hung heavy and solid in the air. Green light formed a nimbus around her hands, and the earth began to vibrate. The ground beneath the bodies of their fallen comrades turned loose like sand. The Hearth Mother turned her arms so that her palms were pointing down and then she slowly lowered her hands down, as if she was pushing. The bodies sank beneath the ground. The light faded from her hands, and the dead were set to rest. The piled carcasses of
the winged koolari remained on solid ground off to the side. Hisako would not bury the fell creatures with the village’s dead.
CHAPTER 24 – Day 141 – Kuborn 31, 15,386 EBG
The two Masters stayed close together as the warband readied itself to move again. Hisako spoke in a low-pitched but serious voice, “Those were not mere skeletons or low level zombies, Lord Richter.” She had completely removed the gore off of herself and her clothes. A Light spell was all it took to clean every speck of blood, leaving Richter honestly a bit jealous. It looked like she was wearing a simple robe, but knowing the Hearth Mother, it probably gave better defense than his own armor.
“Those were koolari,” Yoshi cosigned. “They should not be here. I might have expected to find them in the Whispering Woods, but not in the Forest of Nadria.”
“Why are these undead appearing near your settlement?” Hisako asked Richter pointedly. “First the barrow beasts and now these accursed things appear in the forest. What is happening?”
Richter looked back and forth at the two of them. He had meant to go over this earlier, but there hadn’t seemed to have been time. He now saw that waiting had been a mistake. “The barrow beasts were not the first undead I have encountered in my lands.” Richter proceeded to tell them about how he had found a hidden dungeon while exploring. He quickly spoke of the decaemur knight that had guarded it, and how, after vanquishing the undead guardian, he had relived a memory Alma had stolen from the monster.
Hisako face went from concerned to furious as he spoke of how the decaemur knight had been damned. Richter described the bloody sacrifice of the knight’s people, and how the undead had let his own daughter be ripped apart by unnatural monsters. Then the chaos seed started speaking of the eldritch lord that had been the true architect of the villagers’ suffering. Hisako’s gaze grew alarmed as he spoke of how the undead caster somehow became aware of Richter’s presence and had almost touched his mind before Richter had ended the memory.
